1. Field of Invention
This invention is directed to a method and an apparatus to obtain water conditioning utilizing a localized hot zone. By making use of a conventional heater installed with an aquarium tank a localized hot zone can be established, making it possible to perform other tasks to improve and maintain water quality of the aquarium, including water softening, decreasing ammonia content, alga controlling, and sterilizing.
2. Prior Art
A heater is generally used in an aquarium tank to raise water temperatures to relatively high degrees so as to keep the enclosed fish and invertebrates happy and healthy. More precisely, the prior art considers the heater to be an instrument whose function is merely to supply heat to an aquarium tank. Other tasks required under water-conditioning purposes are deemed by the prior art as irrelevant to the role of a heater, such as water softening, alga control, sterilization, and the de-ammonia process. Even by employing other instruments available in the current markets the aforementioned water-conditioning tasks are nevertheless difficult to perform. To lower total hardness of tank water ion-exchange resins may be used, but at elevated costs. To sterilize water UV irradiation can be employed, requiring care to be exercised at the same time. To obtain alga control one has to lower the nutrition level in the water plus reducing the lighting conditions. The only efficient way to decrease the ammonia content in an aquarium tank is to insist on frequent water change. Ozone may be used to perform both alga control and sterilization, however, excessive dose can be harmful to fish as well as to humans. Simple, efficient, and economic instrumentation performing water conditioning tasks in an aquarium tank is thus still lacking by the prior art.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to address one or more of the foregoing disadvantages or drawbacks of the prior art, and to provide such an improved method and apparatus to obtain water conditioning via the use of a heater. That is, water-conditioning tasks can be performed simultaneously by using the same heater instrument supplying heat to the aquarium tank. By establishing a localized hot zone, water conditioning processes, such as to soften water hardness, to sterilize, to reduce the ammonia content, and to control the population of microalgae, can be thereof initiated, thereby rendering an effective use of the heater instrument.
Other objects will be apparent to one of ordinary skill, in light of the following disclosure, including the claims.
In one aspect, the invention provides a method which sets up a localized hot zone in an aquarium via the use of a heater contained in the prior art. The temperatures at hot zone reach barely the boiling points of water, thereby enabling a plurality of water-conditioning processes to take place with efficiency and effectiveness, including alga control, sterilization, ammonium de-ionization, and water softening.
In another aspect, the invention discloses an apparatus which allows a heater instrument contained in the prior art to provide additional services to an aquarium tank, besides performing the basic task supplying heat to the aquarium. A localized hot-zone is thus established in the aquarium so as to enable the other beneficial processes on water conditioning to occur, such as sterilization, water softening, ammonium de-ionizing, and alga control.